Planning Campaigns

Before you get started using XSellerate, you should spend some time planning
your marketing efforts. Effective marketing is not a haphazard
affair. It takes careful planning, efficient execution and regular
follow-up. The more effort you put into the planning stages, the higher
the payoff in new and repeat business. Keep these items in mind as you
design your holistic marketing approach.

Plan Your Campaigns - As with any effort, the more
thought you put into it before you act, the better result you can expect.

Choose a Target Audience - There are several things you
should consider when selecting a target audience.

Consider the potential impact of the ad you want to send on the audience
you select.

Keep in mind that you may overlap multiple campaigns to the same target
audience. If you overlap too much, you may reduce the effectiveness of
your campaign.

Choose an Appropriate Message - Keep in mind the ads you
send are just as important as the audience you select. For example,
today's SPAM - not to be confused with mass e‑mail - is largely ineffective in
the professional world. While SPAM messages have a broad target
audience, the messages are ill-conceived, laden with typos, and generally
unprofessional. The more thought you put into selecting the right
messages for your campaigns, the better the result.

Consider Appropriate Timing - It's easy to spoil an
effective set of marketing campaigns by sending too many ads to any one person
in a short period of time. A well thought out delivery schedule for the
ads in your "drip campaigns" should balance the importance of your message
with consideration for the recipient. No one likes getting too much
marketing mail from someone. On another tack, bear in mind that
enrolling the same person in multiple campaigns can spoil your timing efforts
as well.

Campaign Types

You should also consider what kind of campaign you wish to use in your
marketing efforts. Campaigns can be:

One-time blasts or mailers -One-time blasts and mailers
aren't truly "campaigns" in the sense that they only occur one time, but even
if your objective is to simply announce a change in your business, XSellerate
can help you achieve it.

One-time direct messages - Much as one time blasts aren't
truly campaigns, one time direct messages are also not true campaigns.
Despite this, XSellerate holds to its nature as a marketing tool by providing
a way for you to send a one-time direct ad to one or more contacts through its
integration with CertMail. For example, you might send a Happy Birthday
ad directly to one individual as a way of cultivating the relationship between
you. While it wouldn't be appropriate to blast a Happy Birthday ad to a
large number of contacts, it makes perfect sense to send such an ad directly
to your contact with your own personalized message.

Drip or multi-contact blasts or mailers - Drip campaigns
help you coordinate a series of messages that you stagger out over the course
of a certain time period. They can help you balance a lot of information
spread out across numerous ads with appropriate timing for maximum
effectiveness. Examples of drip campaigns include ongoing newsletters,
blog subscriptions, and piece-meal ads where each builds on the next.
Drip campaigns can even be a blend of e‑mail messages and postcards if you
want to maximize both the exposure to your marketing efforts and the impact of
each ad.